RE: offtopic helmet polishing (was Re: rm fails to remove symbolic links to directories)

["Robb, Sam" <sam dot robb at timesys dot com>]

>   In science, we have this wonderful concept, called "evidence".
> Observation generates evidence; faith does not.

Nonsense.  Faith is based on evidence.  Tell me - do you think that
the sun will come up tomorrow?  Yes?  That's faith.  You have your
observations, some evidence, and you extrapolate from that to reach
a conclusion about something you have yet to observe or experience.

> In fact, faith is an
> invitation to self-delusion, since it consists mainly in the 
> false inference
> that the apparent strength and clarity of a perception or belief is an
> indication of the accuracy of its relation to reality, which 
> is a total
> non-sequitur.

Oh, come one.  The basis of the scientific method is *precisely*
the idea that the "strength and clarity of a perception... is an
indication of the accuracy of its relation to reality".  Science
is based on our perceptions of reality; increasingly detailed
observations lead to an incresingly accurate model of reality.

If I follow your logic, then I must conclude that both science and
faith - indeed, anything based on my perceptions - are nothing but
self-delusion.  Intellectually cute, perhaps, but hardly satisfying.

-Samrobb